ACE, the Acidulous CPC Emulator

Software
#1

I’ve been working on this on and off for the past few years.

ACE is an Amstrad/Schneider CPC emulator. The CPC is an 8-bit computer from the 80s (and early 90s). ACE is an emulator for it, originally written by OffseT for MorphOS. I porteed the code to Haiku, complete with native GUI.

The emulator has lot of nice features, including a disassembler, memory explorer/editor, etc. It is also one of the most accurate emulators available for the machine and does not need a very powerful computer to run.

Download the Haiku version here (32bit only):
http://pulkomandy.tk/drop/ACE%20Haiku%201.6beta3.zip

It is recommended to install BeBrexx and iff_translator_x86 (both available from HaikuDepot) to fully enjoy ACE.

Project homepage:
http://ace.cpcscene.net

12 Likes
#2

Finally released, been waiting so long! Awesome work PulkoMandy! Going to try it out now :smiley:

#3

Hi there,

Today I released version 1.8.0 (still beta). The main changes are tape support and screenshot support.

Let me know if you find any problems in it, meanwhile I’ll be working on merging the next 11 releases from the upstream MorphOS version.

Download is available on the official homepage.

3 Likes
#4

Hi there,

Today I released version 1.9.0 (still beta). The main changes are new windows for Amstrad Plus features debugging and keyboard emulation, and a lot of bugfixes both in the engine and the Haiku UI.

Let me know if you find any problems in it, meanwhile I’ll be working on merging the next 10 releases from the upstream MorphOS version.

Download is available on the official homepage.

5 Likes
#5

Hi,

I had not updated this topic in a while, but my work on porting ACE continues. Yesterday I published version 1.15.0 (still beta). Hope you find it useful (even if this is maybe only useful for a quite specific subset of Haiku users).

2 Likes
#6

Hurrah! I was actually thinking about this a couple of days ago, going to take a look at the latest version on the weekend :smiley:

#7

Hello there!

Today I published version 1.21.0 of the ACE Amstrad CPC emulator for Haiku.

Get it from http://ace.cpcscene.net

Note, it is still a 32bit only application due to limitations in the original MorphOS version I’m basing my work on. I think this has been fixed in later versions of ACE (1.22 and 1.23 are already available for MorphOS) and I will try to provide a 64bit build when I have caught up with the MorphOS version.

Have fun!

16 Likes
#8

Are there ROM’s available to use with this? Or is this emulator used for previously purchased software that the user must have? Noob question I know.

#9

It looks awesome - I am looking forward to the 64 bit version… I never had a CPC but remember often playing with them at the department store - I always thoght they looked more futuristic than my TRS-80 CoCo 2. Have enjoyed CPC emulation on my Windoze box, so really looking forward to taking it for a spin under Haiku.

#10

The emulator is distributed with the needed system ROMs to run the Amstrad BASIC. Amstrad has given an authorization to use their ROMs in emulators and redistribute them for this usage.

If you want to try some games, there are modern games that are free and available for download, for example:

And there are a lot more.

1 Like
#11

@PulkoMandy what happened to albireo? I was on the waiting list to get one…

Great work on ACE! Time to play some head over heels :smiley:

#12

You are still on the waiting list.

There were various small problems in my personal and professional life at the time which involved moving to two different flats in the course of the same year, and not having time to assemble the albireo boards, so I passed the unassembled boards and components on to someone else who offered to take over the assembly work. Then we found a bug in the UART chip we were using, and we had to identify a replacement chip. Then the replacement chip became obsolete and the manufacturer stopped producing it so we had to buy it from remaining stocks. Then my colleague ran into some problems of its own, including having no space in his flat to install a CPC comfortably to test the boards. He also had hardware issues with his CPC. Then it was lockdown and he didn’t have access to the equipment at his workplace that he planned to use for assembling the boards.

I am glad that I did not do this as a kind of kickstarter and accept the payments in advance because I would be in an uncomfortable situation.

I hope that the current owner of the boards and components will resume assembly someday. Or that we will meet again somehow and he gives the things back to me so I can resume assembling them myself. Until then, production is on indefinite hold.

#13

Thanks for the explanation. I remember reading some of this on cpcwiki.eu. I was reminded of it because I see that ACE now emulates albireo. Perhaps I should get a board made and produce one myself if I can find the parts.

#14

Hello there!

My work on ACE continues and today I published version 1.22.0. This is the first version with support for 3rd party plugins. In ACE download you can find the SDK if you want to make your own plugins.

I am now only two versions behind the MorphOS release of ACE. But after I’m done with that I still need to port all the plugins as well. Then I can move on to other projects :smiley:

As usual you can download ACE from the official website at https://ace.cpcscene.net

Here is the changelog for this version:

  • Improved plugins SDK.
  • New Spanish translation thanks to Juan Carlos Herran Martin.
  • Memory default contents now depends on chip type.
  • Removed tape to hard disc wrapper feature.
  • Added ability to emulate the GX4000.
  • Added fast preferences to quickly reconfigure ACE in the main basic configurations.
  • Added support for extended cartridges.
  • Improved virtual keyboard.
  • Improved symbols management window.
  • New AREXX commands.
  • Internal changes to ease portability.
  • Fixed minor bugs and regressions in GUI and plugins.
11 Likes
#15

Hello!

I just released ACE 1.23.0 today :smiley:

Here are the changes in this version:

  • Added preferences window to configure scriptable events.
  • Added new AREXX commands to directly access CRTC and PSG registers.
  • Added support for new chunks in snapshots (DSCA, DSCB, ROMS et TAPE).
  • Minor fix in PPI emulation of Amstrad Plus (AsT/Impact).
  • Minor fix in PSG emulation (Zik/Futurs’).
  • Preferences windows of ACEpansion plugins are now automatically enabled or disabled by ACE depending on their state.
  • Some fixes in various windows.
  • Speed optimisation in real time windows update mecanism when they are a lot of symbols.
  • Internal fixes so that ACE can now be compiled for AmigaOS 3.x (no public version planned yet).

This is also the first version available for 64-bit Haiku. You can get it as usual from http://ace.cpcscene.net. Let me know if you run into problems with it!

13 Likes
#16

Hi @PulkoMandy ! Thanks for a new version of this emulator :slight_smile:

I just found a crash when click on the Windows menu → Joystick Status… option.

Let me know where I can submit the crash report. I didn’t found the ACE repo in your github :slight_smile:

Thank you!!

#17

It is not open source because the original author does not want to share the sources publicly.

Thanks for the report, I will look into it and fix it in the next version.

#18

Hello,

I have just released ACE 1.24 which solves this issue :slight_smile:

Also included in this new version:

  • Added a filter to improve audio output quality (using fresample.library).
  • Added new features in plugin API (v6 API).
  • Added a plugin to emulate the Multiface Two from Romantic Robot.
  • Added a new window to show the internal keyboard matrix.
  • Improved PSG noise emulation (thanks to Zik and Targhan).
  • Improved mice and joyticks plugins.
  • Fixed a crash when loading invalid snapshots.
  • Minor fixes in GUI.

9 Likes
#19

Excellent! Thank you !
Now I have homework for the weekend :wink:

#20

Oh my word… The Amstrad 6128 was my first “real” computer.
So many memories wrapped up in peeking and poking, trying to crack unlimited lives in all those old games.